Bible Strands

Exodus 23:16

You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — God addresses Israel through Moses at Sinai, issuing festival commands immediately after detailing the Feast of Unleavened Bread and preceding the instruction that all males must appear before Him three times yearly.

The words — The text employs Chag (festival) and ka-Tzir (harvest) to name the Feast of Harvest, linked directly to bi-kurei (first-fruits) of the produce from what the people sow in the field.

The thread — This directive reappears in Exodus 34:22 alongside the Feast of Weeks and Feast of Ingathering, while Leviticus 23:9 and Exodus 22:29 reinforce the recurring pattern of dedicating initial agricultural yields.

Why it lands — The verse requires the community to observe two specific festivals tied to the agricultural calendar, mandating that the first harvest of sown fields and the year-end gathering be formally kept before God.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.

Cross-references